PHILADELPHIA, June 18 (UPI) -- Using the communications vesicles excreted by stem cells, researches at the Temple University School of Medicine induced the damaged cells of a heart in a mouse model to heal themselves. "Our work shows that the best way to regenerate the heart is to augment the self-repair capabilities and increase the heart's own capacity to heal," said Raj Kishore, Ph.D., director of the Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University's School of Medicine, in a press release. "This way, we're avoiding risks associated with teratoma formation and other potential complications of using full stem cells. It's an exciting development in the field of heart disease."
Previous studies have shown that simply injecting stem cells into the heart in the hope that they become cardiac cells does not work. Researchers instead attempted to use excreted called vesicles called exosomes, which stem cells use to communicate.
Researchers saw that after introducing the exosomes to the damaged mouse hearts, cells began to die off more slowly and, over time, cells in the heart became healthier and created new cells.
Future research is expect to focus on larger animals and, eventually, humans.
The study is published in Circulation Research.